Richard Plunz

Richard Plunz is Professor of Architecture at Columbia GSAPP, where he has served as Chair of the Division of Architecture and Director of the post-professional Urban Design Program. He is also Earth Institute Professor and Director of the Urban Design Lab at Columbia. He received his engineering and architecture degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Faculty appointments have included Rensselaer, Penn State and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He is known for a wide range of urban research, development and design projects both nationally and internationally, with a particular expertise in urban infrastructure and fabric. He has been recipient of the Andrew J. Thomas Pioneer in Housing Award from the American Institute of Architects for his contributions to housing research. A revised edition of his book, A History of Housing in New York City (Columbia 1992) is forthcoming in 2016.

Plunz is the author of many articles, studies, and reports on urban development and ecology including (with M.P. Sutto), Urban Climate Change Crossroads (Ashgate 2010). His long-term study of environmental change on the Turkish Aegean coast (with S. Ozkan), Turgutreis 1974 (Literatür 2016) will be released in June. Major research support has included the Ford foundation (for community development), the United Health Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (for urban health and food systems). His National Science Foundation support has included projects related to urban infrastructural innovation and urban coastal resilience.